“You should not reveal our secret plan in front of the enemy,” Loki warned.
“I need you to get it!”
“I got it, but my strategy is different than yours, and I’m taking the lead here.”
Lucifer snapped. “You two are the most insufferable brats I’ve ever been unfortunate enough to deal with. You two are the worst examples in Hell.”
Loki and I lunged at the devil to deliver new strikes.
Lucifer moved like dark lightning from a deep cave. Suddenly, he was faster than my eyes could track. He sliced a five-inch gash along Loki’s thigh. Blood gushed from the prince’s leg through his ruined armor.
I moved in, like the wind, to stab the fucker’s sides, my swords closing in on him. But he inserted his blades near his body, pushed outward, and blocked my steel.
His leg kicked behind him as Loki dashed toward his back, and made contact on Loki’s forehead before the prince could land a blow. Loki stumbled back with a painful yelp.
I jumped back before the devil could twirl his swords at an angle that would cut me in half.
The motherfucker was too strong.
“You shouldn’t have betrayed me, son,” Lucifer said, his cold, cruel voice brimming with something worse than a death threat.
Loki shuddered, though I knew he didn’t want to. For a second, his old and new fear of his father permeated the air.
He swallowed, pushing down his apprehension.
“What did you expect, father? Like father, like son,” Loki said defiantly.
“If you turn against Celeste and hand her over to me, all will be forgiven,” Lucifer said.
Loki answered by attacking his father with white-hot fury. I backed him up with my hissing twin swords.
“Loki is nothing like you, Lucifer,” I said as our weapons locked in a parry. “He’ll be more of a ruler than you can ever be, like my mother.” I raised my voice and let it reach every corner of the room while the battle raged. “Queen Lilith built the realm of Hell. You were jealous of her great power, so you stole it.”
Ares turned in our direction with a vicious grin on his face, listening. The God of War loved chaos and conflict more than anything.
“Who told you that false story?” Lucifer snorted. “Was it my unworthy, treacherous son here? Was that how he turned you against me so he could use you?”
“He didn’t need to do a damn thing,” I said. “I already knew what you did to me. You and Ares tried to steal my power as you did to my mother, but you failed. And Loki isn’t the only one who duped you.”
I jerked a thumb toward Ares, who dueled against my mates on the other side of the room.
“Your old pal over there cheated on you with your queen, and you didn’t even suspect,” I said, a savage grin on my lips. “How could Queen Lilith, who was stripped of her power, get into the Void? Only a powerful Olympian god could help her.”
Lucifer snapped his head toward Ares—he must have already been pondering how Lilith had outmaneuvered him. A little lie wrapped in a half-truth could easily deteriorate their weak alliance. And the devil and the god had many common traits—they were both extremely suspicious, paranoid, cruel, destructive, and utterly arrogant and selfish.
I watched the seed I’d just planted in the devil’s mind grow.
A blind rage flashed across Lucifer’s eyes. Red horns suddenly protruded from his temples. My mother was still his weakness—probably his only weakness.
Ares narrowed his eyes at me and growled. “That cunning little whore is lying. She’s trying to drive a wedge between us. I never banged Lilith.”
I chortled. “Of course you’d say that, Ares. You’re the notorious conqueror, and Queen Lilith is even more beautiful and interesting than your former lover, Aphrodite, the Goddess of Beauty. In every woman’s eyes, you’re more attractive and shrewd than Lucifer. They say you have a bigger dick.”
Lucifer’s horns were turning dark crimson.
“And you’ve competed with Lucifer from the moment both of you came to Earth,” I continued. “You were with Lilith when she was most vulnerable, when she was having a marital issue with her king. Didn’t you tell me, when you took me to your magical castle and shamelessly flirted with me, that the devil’s ultimate goal was to reclaim the heaven he lost? You mocked his falling and told me how sorry you felt for my mother, the beauty of the universe, for being tied to a loser. You only allied with your rival again after you realized that you couldn’t tear me away from my mates without Lucifer’s help.”
“Lies!” Ares interrupted me rudely. “I met Lilith only once and shared a glass of wine with her. That’s all.”